Implantable sensor lead
First Claim
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1. An implantable sensor lead comprising:
- a lead body having a lead body length; and
a plurality of mechanical cardiac activity sensing elements distributed along a portion of said lead body length that are each configured to be in direct contact with tissue in the heart of a patient in whom the lead body is implanted and to individually detect mechanical cardiac activity of the heart of the patient in whom the lead body is implanted exclusively by interaction with said tissue due to said direct contact with said tissue, and each of said sensing elements emitting an electrical signal representing the mechanical cardiac activity directly detected thereby, said plurality of mechanical cardiac activity sensing elements, in combination, directly detecting mechanical cardiac activity of the heart of the patient over an extended region of the heart substantially corresponding to said portion of said length of said lead body.
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Abstract
In an implantable sensor lead for sensing mechanical cardiac activity of a heart, as well as a sensing method and a cardiac stimulator embodying such a sensor lead, multiple cardiac activity sensing elements are distributed along a portion of a length of the lead body of the implantable lead. The sensing elements sense or detect mechanical cardiac activity and respectively emit electrical signals corresponding to the detected mechanical cardiac activity. The delivery of cardiac stimulation pulses can be controlled dependent on an analysis of the detected mechanical cardiac activity.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. An implantable sensor lead comprising:
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a lead body having a lead body length; and a plurality of mechanical cardiac activity sensing elements distributed along a portion of said lead body length that are each configured to be in direct contact with tissue in the heart of a patient in whom the lead body is implanted and to individually detect mechanical cardiac activity of the heart of the patient in whom the lead body is implanted exclusively by interaction with said tissue due to said direct contact with said tissue, and each of said sensing elements emitting an electrical signal representing the mechanical cardiac activity directly detected thereby, said plurality of mechanical cardiac activity sensing elements, in combination, directly detecting mechanical cardiac activity of the heart of the patient over an extended region of the heart substantially corresponding to said portion of said length of said lead body. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. An electronic medical device comprising:
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an implantable sensor lead comprising a lead body having a lead body length, and a plurality of mechanical cardiac activity sensing elements distributed along a portion of said lead body length that are each configured to be in direct contact with tissue in the heart of a patient in whom the lead body is implanted and to individually detect mechanical cardiac activity of the heart of the patient in whom the lead body is implanted exclusively by interaction with said tissue due to said direct contact with said tissue, and each of said sensing elements emitting an electrical signal representing the mechanical cardiac activity directly detected thereby, said plurality of mechanical cardiac activity sensing elements, in combination, directly detecting mechanical cardiac activity of the heart of the patient over an extended region of the heart substantially corresponding to said portion of said length of said lead body; and a processor supplied with said signals emitted by said mechanical cardiac activity sensing elements, said processor analyzing said signals and identifying an attribute of said mechanical cardiac activity therefrom, and emitting a processor output signal indicative of said attribute. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
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13. An implantable cardiac stimulator comprising:
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a pulse generator configured to deliver electrical stimulation pulses to the heart of a patient; an implantable sensor lead comprising a lead body having a lead body length, and a plurality of mechanical cardiac activity sensing elements distributed along a portion of said lead body length that are each configured to be in direct contact with tissue in the heart of a patient in whom the lead body is implanted and to individually detect mechanical cardiac activity of the heart of the patient in whom the lead body is implanted exclusively by interaction with said tissue due to said direct contact with said tissue, and each of said sensing elements emitting an electrical signal representing the mechanical cardiac activity directly detected thereby, said plurality of mechanical cardiac activity sensing elements, in combination, directly detecting mechanical cardiac activity of the heart of the patient over an extended region of the heart substantially corresponding to said portion of said length of said lead body; a processor supplied with said signals emitted by said mechanical cardiac activity sensing elements, said processor analyzing said signals and identifying an attribute of said mechanical cardiac activity therefrom, and emitting a processor output signal indicative of said attribute; and said processor being configured to control said stimulation pulse generator dependent on the detected and analyzed mechanical cardiac activity. - View Dependent Claims (14)
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15. A method for sensing mechanical cardiac activity of a heart comprising the steps of:
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implanting a sensor lead, comprising a lead body having a length with a plurality of cardiac activity sensing elements distributed along a portion of said length, in the heart of a patient to place each of said sensing elements indirect contact with tissue in the heart; with each of said sensing elements, detecting mechanical cardiac activity of the heart exclusively by interaction with said tissue due to said direct contact with said tissue; and from each of said sensing elements, emitting an electrical signal representing the mechanical cardiac activity directly detected thereby to produce a collection of respective electrical signals from said sensing elements that, in combination, represent the directly detected mechanical activity of the heart over an extended region of the heart, substantially corresponding to said portion of said length. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification